Chapter
Five:
That Conformity of the Human Will
to the Divine is the Supreme Good in Life
THE brother of
the Prodigal was indignant that he who had squandered his patrimony
should be welcomed
home with so sumptuous a feast; and so, looking upon this as an act of
injustice to himself, he refused to enter his father's house. But the
father, who was very full of pity, in order to appease his son, went
out, and began to entreat him not to spoil the joy of the day by
dissension. "And he answering said to his father, Behold, for so many
years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandments;
and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends:
but as soon as this thy son is come, who hath devoured his substance
with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." (Luke xv. 29,
30) But that excellent father, in order to quiet his rage, "said to
him, Son, thou art always with me, and all I have is thine." (Verse 31)
Do you not know that you are as much master in the house as myself,
that we have but one purse, and that all my goods are yours? And being
soothed at last by these words he was content to go in.
And in the
same way God, Who is most benignant, preserves a man devoted to His
Will, and inflames him thus:-----"Thou
art ever with Me; thou art in My Intelligence, in my Memory, and in My
Will. I ever regard thee; I embrace thee with singular favour; all I
have is thine; My Heaven, My Angels; yea, My Only-Begotten Son is
thine; and more than this, I Myself am thine, and will remain thine; I
will be thy Reward exceeding great through all eternity." (Gen. xv. 1)
Nor is this
enough for that most loving Father,
but in order that the man who is devoted to the Divine Will may know
how much he prevails with God, He further bestows upon many the power
of doing such things as can be done by Divine Strength alone. "The
works that I do," says Christ, "he also shall do, and greater than
these shall he do." (John XIV. 12) This is the Sovereignty of God, of
which I have already spoken (see preceding Chap.); this is His most
loving promise; this is to be regarded by Him with perpetual favour.
God holds a divided empire, as it were, with man, since all things
which are God's are also man's, yea, even God Himself. S. Paul affirms
most confidently,-----"All
things are yours; whether it be Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come: for all
are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. III. 22,
23) Yours they are, not as yet indeed in possession, but for your use,
and for this end, since all things were made that they might minister
to your salvation. The world and all created things are yours, for they
all serve the body and soul. Life is yours, so that you may devote it
to the sole Will of God. Death is yours, that by it, as through a door,
you may pass into Paradise. Present things are yours, prosperous and
adverse alike, for you use them to advance in virtue. Future things,
too, are yours, since you will enjoy them at your pleasure. All things
work together for your good. (Rom. VIII. 28) The Lord has granted you
your heart's desire. (Ps. xx. 3)
1. The son of
Themistocles used to boast that the
entire Athenian republic was governed by him, since all the citizens
willed what he willed. And while people were wondering at this vaunting
speech of the young man, he added,-----"That which I
will my mother wills also (for she loved her son most tenderly), and
that which my mother wills my father, Themistocles, also wills; and it
is well known that whatever pleases my father at once pleases all
Athens. And in this way," he said, "the Athenian republic is quietly
brought under my government." And in the same way, but with a better
right, a man whose will is perfect may say,-----"That
which I will the whole host of Heaven wills also; for that which I will
God wills (since I never will anything but that which He wills), and
that which God wills, all the orders of the blessed and all the degrees
of the Angels will also." To such a man as this the Father repeats
these most soothing words,-----"All
I have is thine." But the wicked are rebels still; and yet the time
will come when they also will be made subject to the just:-----"The
just shall have dominion over them in the morning." (Ps. XLVIII. 15) As
long as the night of this life lasts monstrous acts of wickedness are
perpetrated, and are not discovered; the Divine Will is resisted, and
God keeps silence; but "in the morning," in the last day when all shall
rise again, then "the just shall have dominion over them." All the
power of the wicked shall consume away like a worn-out garment; and
then will it be said afresh,-----"All
I have is thine." Most truly does S. Paul say,-----"He
that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. VI. 17), through this
consent of the will, from which man derives tranquillity of conscience,
and sanctity of life, so as ever to flourish and bloom.
Brocardus
relates a wonderful story about certain
places in the Holy Land, solemnly asserting that nothing is told by him
but what he saw with his own eyes:-----"Before
one of the gates of Jerusalem," he says, "there is the spot, distant
about a spear-cast from the city, where our Lord addressed the
multitude, and at this same place is pointed out a stone on which that
woman stood who cried out, in the midst of our Lord's address, 'Blessed
is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck.' (Luke
XI. 27) The hill is never covered with sand, although in the
neighbourhood it flies about like snow driven with the wind, and
settles on everything else. And besides this, both in summer and
winter, this grassy spot, by some wonderful property, preserves its
verdure perfect." Now there is great resemblance between this
ever-verdant hill, as I may so say, and the man who receives the Divine
Will into his inmost heart, so as to exclaim,-----"I
desire that Thou, O my Lord, shouldest address me here; to Thee will I
listen." So perfect a mind as this is never buried beneath the sandy
waves of troubles, nor can anything ever come so much amiss to a man of
a disposition like this, as to prevent his saying,-----"Thou
dealest gently with me, O Lord, and sparest me too much; I have merited
severer treatment; "I feel these afflictions indeed, however light they
may be: but not what I feel, but what Thou willest, I regard; and
because Thou permittest these things, I have no desire so much as to
open my mouth against them. Whatever I see pleases Thee pleases me. I
am perfectly satisfied with all Thy Decrees. I am fully prepared to
obey every indication of Thy Will. Bid, command, ordain, change, as
Thou wilIest. Too foolish should I be, and wicked, if I were to require
to restrain Thee, or place a limit to Thine Ordinances!" Such a man as
this a perfect army of misfortunes will never be able to vanquish; nor
will the loss of anything tear him away from God. Here at least he is
invincible; he flourishes both in summer and winter, in adversity as
well as in prosperity.
2. When Jehu
the general met Jonadab, he addressed him kindly and said,-----"Is
thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart? And Jonadab said: It is.
If it be, said he, give me thy hand. He gave him his hand. And he
lifted him up to him into the chariot." (4 Kings X. 15) And that which
Jehu did, Christ the King of all the world did also. He came to
Samaria, which, by its very name, signifies this world bristling with
thorns; and for this purpose He came, that He might destroy all the
family of wicked Achab and the false priests of Baal, that is to say,
that He might root out pride, lust, idolatry, and every kind of sin.
And here Christ found Jonadab, a man of good will, to whom He put the
question,-----"Is
thy heart right, as My Heart is with thy heart? If it be, give Me thy
hand, and mount into My Chariot, and come with Me." To such an one God
stretches out the right Hand of His Grace, and raises him up into the
lofty Chariot of His Will; and in this he is borne along.
For,-----"Come
with Me," He says, "and I will lead you by the way of the Cross; this
is the very path to life, even that life which is eternal. Fear not;
sit by My side, I will not suffer you to fall; by this narrow path will
I conduct you to Heaven. Come with Me, that you may ever be with Me,
and by My side." This is that safest of all places in the world which
Job so exceedingly longed for when he said,-----"Deliver
me, O Lord, and set me beside Thee, and let any man's hand fight
against me." (Job XVII. 3) I shall endure, he means, and come out safe
from a thousand blows, being perfectly secure in Thy keeping. When a
man has once reached this Chariot of the Divine Will, it is easy for
him to insinuate himself into the closest intimacy with Christ, yea,
and to become a kinsman of Christ, and to be united to Him by the
closest ties of relationship; for our Lord Himself
declares,-----"Whosoever
shall do the Will of My Father That is in Heaven, he is My brother, and
sister, and mother." (Matt. XII. 50) And here Euthymius very rightly
exclaims,-----"O
admirable virtue which exalts those who attain to it to such a height
of honour as to make them the very kinsmen of Christ!" Of a truth the
union of the human will with the Divine is the supreme good in life.
A saintly man
used to say,-----"WHATEVER
YOU WISH TO BE, THAT YOU ARE!" For so great is the power belonging to
our will, when united to the Divine, that whatever we seriously and
with our whole intention desire to be, we may be. No one ardently
wishes to be lowly, patient, modest, or liberal, who may not be that
which he desires to be,-----"WHATEVER
YOU DESIRE TO BE, THAT YOU ARE." The same holy man further
adds:-----"If
it is not in your power to do, or offer, great things, yet have at
least a great will, and stretch this to infinity. Are you poor? You can
still be of that mind, that, if riches were yours, you would bestow
them liberally on the needy. Is your strength small? Still you may so
offer yourself, that, if you had a thousand souls and a thousand heads,
you would not refuse to lay down the thousand souls, and heads, and
lives for Christ. Are you afflicted? And do you think yourself
wretched? Unite your will to the Divine, and you will be perfectly
happy. That man is truly wretched who knows not how to rule himself,
and for possession of whom vices contend, as cities do for the birth
place of Homer; who, by a most disgraceful alternation, is one while
the slave of ambition, at another, of avarice, at another, of anger or
envy, at another, of drunkenness or lust. Scarcely ever is he his own,
and much less God's, because he is never able to rule himself. The poet
sings of Hercules,-----"When
he had made all things his slaves, he himself fell a slave to desire
and anger." And we may say nearly the same of such a man as I am
describing. Although he possesses all things, yet he wants himself; he
is not his own, but is the slave of money or passion, and many other
vices. "The patient man is better than the valiant: and he that ruleth
his spirit, than he that taketh cities." (Prov. XVI. 32) If you desire
to bring all things into subjection to yourself, submit yourself to the
Divine Will. You will rule many, if the Divine Will rules you.
3. In all ages
of the world God has ever had
certain from among men whom he has chosen to Himself to be His friends,
whom He might admit to intimacy, to whom He might unfold many of His
secret designs, and to whom He might manifest Himself by daily favours.
And of these some are, as it were, of the first order of nearness to
Him, others of the second, and others of the third. That is to say,
some are more closely united to God than others. Men of this kind we
call "Saints."
Now the very
first step to saintliness of life is
to surrender oneself absolutely to the Divine Will in all things. That
man attains to the greatest sanctity of life who descends deepest into
the Divine Will. And so blessed Paul, desiring this one thing in his
converts, says,-----"We
cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the
knowledge of His Will." (Col. I. 9) It is not enough for him that the
Divine Will should be recognized by his children in the Faith, but he
desires that they should be "filled" with this knowledge. He desires
that they should descend as deeply as possible into the Divine Will.
For Paul knew that when he had obtained this from them they would
advance very rapidly, and without difficulty, in the pursuit of all
kinds of virtue.
How fitting,
moreover, is it that that which from eternity has been
pleasing to God should be pleasing also to man. When Harpagus had dined
off the flesh of his own son, and King Astyages (who had prepared that
banquet) ordered the remaining limbs, such as the head, and arms, and
feet, to be brought forward, and inquired,-----"How
did you like it? He replied,-----"Whatever the King does I like."
Ah! miserable wretch! is it so great a matter to you to throw off the
man that you may please a beast? And should not we Christians the
rather say this one thing under all circumstances,-----"Whatever God
does pleases me?"
The gross
flattery of the Romans used formerly to subscribe to the petitions
which were presented to the Emperor,-----"The
most devoted servant of your Deity and Majesty." Christians, too,
present petitions when they pray. And therefore let everyone always
add, both to his prayers and works,-----"To
Thy Deity and Will, O my God, I am most devoted." To devote one's whole
will to the Divine Will, and closely to bind it there, is the supreme
good in life, and is in reality Heaven out of Heaven, as I shall now
proceed to show.
